RICS to collaborate with surveying professionals in Africa as property markets grow

Growth in property markets across Africa will not just fuel a need for massive infrastructure investment but also see a need for more professionals, skills and capacity to manage this growth. In many of the continent’s capital cities, improved levels of foreign direct investment and a growing middle class has led to increased demand for residential, business and retail property.

Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, for example, is fast becoming a hub for international corporates setting up regional headquarters there. Other megacities such as Lagos in Nigeria, Luanda in Angola and Johannesburg in South Africa are also expected to become attractive destinations for global investors.

For this reason, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, RICS, is collaborating with organisations across the continent to understand the potential role chartered surveyors could play in key African markets as the built environment undergoes unprecedented change.

RICS is a global professional organisation that promotes and enforces the highest qualifications and standards in surveying. As a not-for-profit, it operates in almost all of the world’s financial hubs is committed to its mandate to work in the public interest.

RICS is currently building relationships with national professional surveying bodies across the continent, including the Ghanaian Institute for Surveyors (GhIS) and the South African Council for the Quantity Surveying Profession (SACQSP). We also work with tertiary institutions, public and private sector organisations.

RICS will participate in the upcoming Planning Africa conference to be held in Durban from 19 to 22 October 2014. RICS President Louise Brooke-Smith and RICS Regional Managing Director for Europe, Middle East and Africa, Mark Walley, will join members of the profession from across the world to share experiences and good practice in land use planning as an essential element in determining where growing populations will live and work, among many other related topics.

Last month, RICS launched its research report called ‘Unleashing Sub-Saharan African PropertyMarkets’ in Cape Town, South Africa. The report examines the property markets of five case study countries, namely, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria and Tanzania. Download the report here and also see this short interview with CNBC Africa